Nigeria: We Are Ready for 2015, APC Tells Nigerians

Nigeria's main opposition party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) has told Nigerians that the party is poised to give the country purposeful leadership come 2015.

This was the summary of the First Progressives Governance Lecture tagged "Unemployment and the Crisis of Governance in Nigeria: The Way Forward", organised by the Progressive Governors Forum (PGF), in Ibadan yesterday.

Speaking at the occasion, Ekiti State governor and chairman, Governance Steering Committee of the PGF, Dr Kayode Fayemi, said the lecture was aimed at examining the challenges besetting the country and proffering solutions.

The governor, who said the APC is a party of difference and development, stated that the struggle of the party is "not the survival of the fittest but to pull up the weak and vulnerable" in the society.

Assuring Nigerians of a better country, Fayemi asserted that the 2015 election is going to be a replica of the biblical battle between David and Goliath but the party relies on the people's support.

The governor noted that there is a connection between unemployment and governance and identified insecurity and unemployment as the main problems in Nigeria, saying that the latter breeds the former.

He stressed that the APC owes it a duty rather than a favour to empower the people, hence the first attack on unemployment.

Commenting on the former PDP governors who are now in APC, Fayemi said the governors share the same ideologies with the APC even as they pursue similar policies aimed at employment generation.

Recalling some of the points raised by discussants that unemployment and poverty are the root causes of insecurity in the North, the committee chairman said the incessant killings in the North proves that the federal government either has "no capacity or low capacity" to address the security challenge.

Fayemi urged Nigerians to examine the present situation of the country ahead of the February 2015 general elections, saying it is theirs to challenge and throw out a non-performing government.

Earlier, the guest lecturer, Dr Ayo Teriba, had raised some posers for government, stressing the need to do something to halt the growing spate of unemployment in the country as a way to stem insecurity.

In his remarks, the chairman of the PGF and governor of Imo State, Owelle Rochas Okorocha stated that the unemployment situation in Nigeria is unacceptable and has become a major setback for the country despite the resources it is blessed with.

Okorocha added that it is the vision of the APC to tackle unemployment by strengthening the democratic process and promoting the core values of justice.

AllAfrica publishes around 2,000 reports a day from more than 130 news organizations and over 200 other institutions and individuals, representing a diversity of positions on every topic. We publish news and views ranging from vigorous opponents of governments to government publications and spokespersons. Publishers named above each report are responsible for their own content, which AllAfrica does not have the legal right to edit or correct.

AllAfrica is a voice of, by and about Africa - aggregating, producing and distributing 2000 news and information items daily from over 130 African news organizations and our own reporters to an African and global public. We operate from Cape Town, Dakar, Lagos, Monrovia, Nairobi and Washington DC.